07/01/2007
Susinta — I guided 3 people who each caught a king salmon. 2 king salmon were caught on size 15 Stingfish plugs and 1 king salmon was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish. The fish weighed 28, 24, and 20 pounds. It rained and we got wet and cool on this trip.
07/02/2007
I guided 4 people on a morning trip and 3 of them caught 4 king salmon. All except for the last king salmon were released. The kept fish weighed 20 pounds, while I would estimate two released fish as close to the same size and one released fish at about 5 pounds. 2 king salmon were caught on a Spinning Cheater, 1 fish was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish, and 1 salmon was caught on a size 15 Stingfish.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests, each of whom caught a king salmon. Three of the fish weighed about 20 pounds and the largest king salmon weighed 35 pounds. All of the fish were caught on Fat Fish plugs.
07/03/2007
Susinta — I guided 4 people and no one caught a fish. We only had a few pull downs during the entire trip. We saw a few fish rolling in some of the holes we were fishing, but were simply unable to hook any of them up. Some of the other guide groups managed to catch some king salmon, and a couple guides said there groups had each caught 1 silver salmon. The silver salmon are few and far between at the present, but present the possibliity of a nice bonus fish.
07/04/2007
Little Susitna River — I guided a morning group of 4 guests who caught 1 king salmon which weighed 33 pounds. The salmon was caught on a K-13 Kwikfish. We also saw some additional salmon, and had some bump our lines, but could not get any additional good strikes. In addition to fishing with small Kwikfish we also tried Spinning Cheaters, a magnum Wiggle Wart, and Flashtrap Spinners. Water was low and clear, but could come up as a result of the rainy weather we experienced.
07/05/2007
Susitna — I guided 4 guests who caught 3 king salmon on the Deshka River. As in several recent trips we found plenty of fish rolling in some of the holes, but could only coax a few into striking. 2 king salmon were caught drifting Fire Cured salmon eggs under ESB Bobbers and 1 king salmon was caught on a K-13 Kwikfish. The group also caught 1 rainbow trout on a K-13 Kwikfish and 1 rainbow trout on salmon eggs. Weather was cool and clouldy and the water had risen from recent rain. 2 of the king salmon today were nice bright fish, while 1 king salmon was getting dark.
07/06/2007
Susitna — I guided a morning group of 4 guests who caught 3 king salmon on Fire Cured salmon eggs drifted under ESB Bobbers. The group also caught a whitefish and rainbow trout and hooked several other salmon that managed to throw the hooks before they could be landed.
07/07/2007
I guided a morning group of 4 fishermen, each of whom caught a king salmon. The fish they kept weighed 18 – 24 pounds and were caught on Fat Fish, Stingfish, and Kwikfish plugs.
I guided an afternoon group of 4 guests who hooked several salmon, but only managed to land one 28 pounder. All of the fish were hooked backtrolling plugs.
07/08/2007
Susitna — I guided a morning group of 2 fishermen, each of whom caught a king salmon on K-15 Kwikfish. The fish weighed 20 and 30 pounds. It was a very quiet morning on the water today and we saw very few other anglers during this trip.
07/09/2007
Susitna — I guided a group of 6 people who caught 3 king salmon which weighed 9, 11, and 28 pounds. 1 king salmon was caught on a size 15 Stingfish, 1 king salmon was caught on a K-15 Kwikfish, and 1 King salmon was caught on a Fat Fish plug. We located other king salmon as well, but they seemed spooky and unwilling to bite, perhaps becuase of heavy fishing pressure over the weekend. We`ll be guiding king salmon fishing trips the next 4 days until the king salmon season ends. On July 14 we will switch directly into fishing for silver and chum salmon. Check back to learn how we are doing or give us a call at 907-746-2199 if you would like to reserve a trip with us.
07/10/2007
Susinta River — I guided a morning group of 2 guests to Deshka River, a tributary of the Susitna. Each guest caught and kept a limit of 2 king salmon by drifting Pautzke`s Fire Cured salmon eggs under ESB Bobbers. Even though it is late in the king salmon season all 4 king salmon were in excellent shape and one of the chrome fish still had sea lice clinging to it. The kings were large for Deshka fish as well, with each of the salmon weighing in the 20 – 30 pound range.
Deshka River has already had nearly 18,000 king salmon swim past the Deshka River Weir, which is more than the Alaska Department of Fish and Game figures is necessary to produce maximum sustained yeild from this river. There could be up to another couple thousand king salmon surplus to spawning needs still headed up past the weir, however, Deshka River is scheduled to close to king salmon fishing on July 14. With the large spawning escapemen of king salmon already above the weir, and current and future fish avialable below the weir, I would would like to propose that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game extend the king salmon season by emergency order below the Deshka River weir through July 31.
With that thought in mind, I contacted the Palmer Fish and Game office 907-746-6300 my Senator Charlie Huggins, and Representatives Bill Stoltze, and Carl Gatto and asked that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game extend the Deshka River king salmon season through July 31 below the weir. If you believe that sport fishermen should be allowed to catch some of the surplus king salmon below the weir by a season extension, please feel encouraged to contact the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and your legislators and make your desires known. It will not happen unless we ask, and a collective voice of many fishermen and businesses is much more effective than one voice. Since the State of Alaska has spent thousands of dollars to operate a weir on the Deshka River, wouldn`t it be appropriate when the weir shows significant numbers of available surplus king salmon late in the season to extend the season to allow more sport fishing opportunity and harvest?
Thank you to all who are willing to help on this effort.
07/11/2007
Susinta — I guided 4 anglers who caught 3 king salmon fishing Fire Cured salmon eggs under ESB bobbers on the Deshka River. We had a hard time locating many fish and fished most of the trip before finally hooking and catching the first king salmon. In addition to the salmon that the group caught, 1 fisherman also hooked an additional king salmon that got away and also caught a beautifully colored rainbow trout which we released. I`m planning to fish the Deshka again on Thursday.
07/12/2007
Susinta — In the morning I guided 3 anglers who caught 2 king salmon on salmon eggs fished under ESB bobbers. Both salmon were nice fresh fish and decent sized for Deshka River kings. We saw several other salmon rolling, but were undable to hook any others.
In the afternoon I guided a group of 3 anglers who only caught 1 sucker fish. We saw several salmon rolling in some of the holes we were fishing, but could not manage to hook even a single fish. Some times the Deshka fish turn off during the middle of the day, and we had scheduled this trip for later, running into the evening hoping to catch more active salmon willing to bite. Every thing worked as planned, except for the salmon being willing to bite.
07/13/2007
Susitna River — Last day of the Mat-Su Valley king salmon season for 2007, and I guided a group of 4 people to the Deshka River. The group caught 2 king salmon in excellent shape, 1 silver salmon, 1 rainbow trout, and 1 sucker fish. All of the fish were caught on Pautzke`s Fire Cured salmon eggs drifted under ESB bobbers. The silver salmon was the first one caught on my guide boat this year.
After the fishing trip was over, I took a boat ride while scouting for silver, chum, and other salmon besides kings. I found a few of the other salmon, but no large schools of fish, and also saw several king salmon.
I`ll be guiding a trip specifically for silver and chum salmon tomorrow morning, so check back in the afternoon or evening if you would like to know what we catch.
07/14/2007
Little Susitna River — I guided a morning group of 3 people who caught 4 silver salmon on Flashtrap Spinners. 2 silver salmon were caught on a #3 silver and black pattern and 2 silver salmon were caught on a #5 pink bladed spinner. During our entire morning trip we saw very few salmon, so I felt very fortunate that the guests caught as many silvers as they did. After the trip I spent some additonal time looking around for more silver or chum salmon, but did not see many fish. It looks like it may be a week or more before the silver salmon fishing picks up.
07/15/2007
Little Susitna River — I guided 2 people in the morning who each caught a limit of silver salmon. I also fished during the trip and caught a limit of silver salmon. 5 silver salmon were caught casting #5 pink Flashtrap Spinners and 1 silver salmon was caught casting a #4 silver and black Flashtrap Spinner. During the morning trip we only saw 4 salmon beside the ones we caught.
I guided an afternoon group of 3 guests who hooked 1 silver salmon, but did not catch any fish. The fish was hooked on a #4 silver Flashtrap Spinner. In addition to the 1 fish a guest hooked, we also saw 2 salmon jump that we were not able to hook even though the guests thoroughly flogged the water were we saw each fish.
I`ve had several people ask me about fishing conditions on Little Susitna River, so I`ve decided to go into more detail on today`s report. The water is very low and clear, and if a person boats upstream from the landing it is possible to see bottom almost everywhere, and especially if you are in the first boat headed upstream. I`ve boated and fished upstream for about 10 miles looking for salmon, and while there are still good numbers of king salmon hanging around in some of their prefered spots, there are extremely few other salmon. In those 10 miles that I boated upstream looking for fish I saw less than 10 salmon other than kings, and most of those appeared to be chums.
Conditions are similar downstream — boat traffic tends to make the water muddier downstream and more difficult to see into the holes, however, on my return from Saturday`s trip all of the other boaters were downstream of us looking for fish, and I was able to see quite well into the holes for about 5 miles travelling back to the landing — there were a few deeper places where I may not have seen bottom, but in the trip back to the landing I did not see a single salmon. In other words, if you go fishing now, expect to do lots of casting for every salmon caught. Conditions will be picking up as more salmon move into the river, however, that may be a while.
07/17/2007
Susinta — I guided a group of 4 guests to a tributary of the Susitna River and they caught 6 king salmon, all of which had to be released, and 1 silver salmon which was kept. All of hte fish were caught by dlrifiting salmon eggs under ESB bobbers. The water was low and relatively clear, although I only saw a few salmon in the river. We did see them rolling in front of us as we fished some of the holes.
07/18/2007
Little Susitna River — I fished with 2 guests today and each of us hooked one legal salmon. The silver salmon that I hooked was the only one that made it all the way to the boat. Once again there did not seem to be many salmon avialable in the Little Susitna River, although today we did see sockeye, coho, chums, and kings in the river. Our fish were hooked on a #5 pink Flashtrap Spinner, a #4 silver Flashtrap Spinner, and a #3 silver and black Flashtrap Spinner. Water remains very low, and many of the normal holes do not have enough water to hold the salmon as they travel upstream.
07/19/2007
Little Susinta River — I guided a late morning group of 3 guests who caught 1 silver salmon and 1 chum salmon on Flashtrap Spinners. The silver salmon was caught on a #3 sivler and black pattern and the chum was caught on a #4 silver and black pattern. The group also caught a small king salmon which was released and hooked but lost another chum salmon. Water remains low and clear and some of the other guides who fished earlier and in other areas had more successful trips than we did. There is still very few salmon in or entering the river, altough the silver salmon run will continue to build over the next two and a half weeks and usually remains strong into early September.
07/20/2007
Took a day off.
07/21/2007
Kenai River — Frede and I travelled South for some fun fishing with some friends on the Kenai River. Frede caught the only king salmon of the day for our boat — a fish that weighed about 18 pounds. She caught the king salmon on a Beau Mac Spinning Cheater and salmon eggs. I also briefly hooked but lost a king salmon and that was the only other hook up group of 4 had. We saw people fishing along the river and catching sockeye salmon in several spots. The sockeyes had just started entering the Kenai in big numbers the previous Thursday.
07/22/2007
Kenai River — Frede, Gary, and I once again fished for Kenai River king salmon, but this time Jeff devoted his time to operating the boat while the rest of us fished. Sunday his the day of the week where guides are not allowed to run guests for king salmon on the Kenai, so we saw less boats on the river, but we were unable to hook up with any king salmon. We did see a few boats around us with people fighting and catching king salmon. The morning was we and cold, so we came back in to dry out and eat lunch.
Wearing extra layers of dry clothes in the afternoon, we travelled below the Kenai bridge to try personal use dip netting for Kenai sockeye salmon. Once again the 4 of us were fishing from one boat. Gary ran the boat most of the trip, but switched off operating a net for a while later in the trip. Jeff started out helping get the fish out of the nets, then knocked the fish in the head, before cutting their tails with a pair of scissors, putting them in the cooler and cutting their gills to bleed them. Frede and I started out with the nets, but later Frede switched positions with Jeff. We caught plenty of sockeye to make the trip fun and exciting, and managed to scoop a few nets with two sockeye at different times during the trip. Frede was lucky enough to net a king salmon of about 25 pounds, and after two or three hours of dipping we were headed upriver with a boat full of salmon to fillet. It was getting quite late before we were done with that task, ate a quick meal, and turned in for the day.
The Kenai River personal use dip net fishery is open to all Alaskan residents, and to those who have never tried dipnetting, it is lots of fun and plenty of work. Being on the river when 30,000 – 40,000 sockeye a day are swimming past the sonar counter usually makes for a very successful dipnetting adventure. Fresh Kenai sockeye are a wonder fish to eat, and each household is also allowed to keep one Kenai River king salmon if they should be lucky enough to catch one. The best dipnetting usually occurs during the last half of July, and the dipnetting season usually closes on July 31.
07/23/2007
Kenai River — after a long day of king salmon fishing dipnetting, and filleting sockeye the day before we slept in late and opted to pack up and return home early to take care of our filleted fish rather than do anymore fishing today. Mondays in July on the lower Kenai River people are allowed to fish from non powered boats only on the lower river, and this makes for a nice quiet day on the river with low numbers of people out fishing for king salmon — we`ll have to try that option again some other time.
07/24/2007
Little Susitna River — I guided 3 people in the morning who caught 2 silver salmon and a chum salmon and also hooked but lost a few additional silver salmon. 2 silver salmon were caught on #5 pink Flashtrap Spinners, 1 chum salmon was caught on a #4 silver Flashtrap Spinner and 1 chum salmon was caught on a #4 orange Flashtrap Spinner.
I guided and fished with an afternoon group of 2 guests and each of us caught a limit of silver salmon. 1 silver salmon was caught on a #5 pink Flashtrap Spinner and 5 silver salmon were caught on a #4 silver and brass Flashtrap Spinner. Water has been rising slightly with the recent rainy weather. Number of salmon in the Little Susitna is still lower than normal for this time of year, but has increased significantly in the past few days.
07/25/2007
Little Susitna River — I guided a morning group of 4 people, who caught 6 silver salmon and 3 chum salmon on Flashtrap Spinners. #4 silver and brass and #4 orange were the top producing spinner patterns.
In the afternoon I guided a group of 3 guests who hooked and lost 2 silver salmon close to the boat. We had a tough time finding salmon that were willing to bite, but saw a group of bank anglers that had landed several salmon close to the landing. I would describe the silver salmon fishing as spotty, as the overall number of silver salmon seems relatively low, however, when groups of fishermen finds one of the better schools of fish or simply picks off a silver here and there out of enough spots, some limits are landed every day .
The water was somewhat murky from the recent rain, but looked to me like the water level could be dropping once again by tomorrow.
07/26/2007
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 5 fishermen who caught 5 sockeye salmon, 2 silver salmon, and 2 chum salmon on Flashtrap Spinners. #4 silver and black, #4 orange, and #3 black all produced salmon. We fished on a couple large schools of sockeye salmon today, but did not find many silvers.
07/27/2007
Susinta — I guided a group of 4 fishermen on an afternoon trip and they each caught a limit of silver salmon fishing Fire Cured salmon eggs behind Beau Mac Spinnning Cheaters and Corkies. Fishing was extremely good as we found all the silvers we needed at the first place we fished.
07/28/2007
Little Susitna River — I guided a group of 5 fishermen in the morning who caught 5 silver salmon and 2 chum salmon while casting with Flashtrap Spinners. The river water level has dropped even lower than it was earlier and consequently our best producing lures have been the smaller #4 spinners, because they do not sink down and catch bottom as much, and also they can be fished slower in the low water conditions. Silver and orange patterns both produced salmon today.
I guided and fished with an afternoon group of 3 anglers and we caught 6 silver salmon. Once again all of the salmon were caught on Flashtrap Spinners. 5 of the silvers were caught on #4 orange spinners and 1 silver was caught on a #4 silver and brass spinner. We have been catching nice large silver salmon on the Little Susitna this year with fish up to 12 pounds, but so far, overall numbers of silver salmon remain lower than normal. We expect the fishing to continue to improve over the remainder of July and into August.
07/29/2007
Susitna — I guided a mid morning group of 5 people who caught 2 silver salmon and several chum and pink salmon. All of the salmon were caught on Pautzke`s Fire Cured salmon eggs either fished behind jet divers or under ESB bobbers. We fished several different holes, but could not seem to find any good groups of silver salmon. The water level on the Susitna River was higher than I had seen it for the entire year.
Deshka River — I talked with Norm Haynes who had guided groups to the Deshka, and he said that while there were large schools of silver salmon swimming around the mouth of the Deshka, and several groups fishing for them he only saw 5 silvers caught in the morning and only 2 of those were hooked legally. Norm said his fishermen did not hook a legal salmon all day. Water tempetatures have been quite warm at the Deshka, so hopefully some rain will improve the salmon`s willingness to bite.
07/30/2007
Little Susitna River — Greg Acord guided a moring group and everyone limited early on silver salmon caught while casting spinners. In the afternoon his group had to fish much harder to catch salmon.
Scott MacIntosh also told me he and his wife and granddaughters all limited on Little Susitna River silver salmon in the morning. There was also lots of rain in the morning so it was a very wet day on the river.
I had a day off.